Electronic Arts Says New Windows Central for Mobile Games

“We’re working very closely with Microsoft to understand what their views on gaming navigation are,” Chief Operating Officer Peter Moore said in a phone interview. Photographer: Jonathan Alcorn/Bloomberg

Aug. 13 (Bloomberg) -- Electronic Arts Inc., the second-largest U.S. video-game maker, is in talks with Microsoft Corp.
to bring mobile games to the next version of Windows as it sees
the operating system as central to its handset strategy.

“We’re working very closely with Microsoft to understand
what their views on gaming navigation are,” Chief Operating
Officer Peter Moore said in a phone interview before the annual
Gamescom conference kicks off this week in Cologne, Germany.
“Anything that allows more platforms to be adopted quickly that
have a gaming element is good for Electronic Arts.”

Electronic Arts is counting on games on phones and tablet
computers as well as Internet-based titles to reduce the Redwood
City, California-based company’s reliance on boxed retail
products. With sales of the mobile version of Windows 8 slated
for later this year, Microsoft needs developers to create
products for its platform to take on Apple Inc.’s iPhone and
devices powered by Google Inc.’s Android software.

Android ran 68 percent of smartphones sold in the second
quarter, followed by iOS, Apple’s iPhone software, with 17
percent, according to research firm IDC. That compares with 3.5
percent for Redmond, Washington-based Microsoft’s mobile
operating system, which ranked fifth.

Fewer Apps

Windows also trails the two market leaders in the number of
games and applications available. There are more than 100,000
apps for the Microsoft product, compared with more than 600,000
each for Apple and Android.

“It is important to attract the gamers and due to Windows
Phone 8’s relation to the classical Windows PC programs, it is a
good platform for game developers,” said Robert Jakobsen, an
analyst at Jyske Bank A/S in Silkeborg, Denmark. “This is
clearly a step forward for Microsoft’s mobile operation
system.”

Shares of Electronic Arts have slumped 37 percent this year
through Aug. 10, the sixth-worst performer in the Standard and
Poor’s 500 Index, as consumers shift toward online play. The
shares slipped 0.4 percent to $13.03 at 9:54 a.m. in New York.
Microsoft lost 1 cent to $30.41.

Activision Blizzard Inc., the largest U.S. video-game
maker, dropped 1.2 percent to $11.50.

‘FIFA Soccer’

Games are the most often downloaded mobile applications for
smartphones in the U.S., according to Nielsen Co., a marketing
and research company.

Nokia Oyj, the former mobile-phone market leader attempting
a comeback, plans to announce its new line of smartphones using
the Windows Phone 8 operating system next month and offer them
for sale before the year-end holiday shopping season, a person
with knowledge of the matter said this month.

Electronic Arts plans to show a new version of city-building simulator “SimCity” as well as updates to its “FIFA
Soccer,” “Medal of Honor” and “Need for Speed” titles at
the Gamescom conference this week. The company is on the lookout
for more acquisitions after purchasing game makers including
PopCap Games Inc. and Playfish Inc., Moore said.